If there was ever a comic book character worth trackin ’round these parts, it’d would have to be X-Men’s Wolverine, right? Not only is the character a brusque, take-no-shite beast of a man…the next cinematic chapter in the character’s arc, THE WOLVERINE, comes by way of master filmmaker Darren Aronofsky. And with he and Hugh Jackman having worked together before (THE FOUNTAIN), we can all expect to see something truly great when they reunite. Right? F*ckin-A right!
Sharing the sentiment is Mr. Jackman himself, who recently beamed to the L.A. Times how nicely things are coming together on the Chris McQuarrie scripted comic book tent-pole. Peep it…
“I’m really, really pumped about it. I feel like all the planets are finally aligned to make a great movie. We finally have the character and with this mythology — ever since [the 2000 Bryan Singer film] “X-Men,” when I was kind of hanging around and reading all these comics, because I was cast before I ever read any X-Men comics, so I was trying to get my hands on everything. I remember saying to [producer] Lauren Shuler Donner, “Lauren, I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen this Japanese story, and I think it’s so good. It’s just genius, it’s brilliant.” And we kind of always talked about it from there on. I sort of even wanted to do that in the third X-Men movie at first, but we thought, no, we really need to establish who he is at first, and we did that [with “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”], and now this is sort of the cherry on top, to finally do it and have Darren Aronofsky direct it. I love his gung-ho attitude toward it and great vision. Straight off, it’s not a sequel, it’s a stand-alone, and I think we’re going to make one that people will describe as the best of the bunch.”
Wow, dude’s fervor leaps off the page, huh? Now I’m even more pumped!
About Wolverine’s appearance in the next go around, Jackman admitted to being on an intensive, 6,000 calorie intake/day diet…and that the idea is to bulk a bit from when last seen:
“Yeah, he’s thick and it’s chunky and it’s powerful. I always think of Mike Tyson when he first came on the scene. Sometimes, he was a full foot shorter than his opponents and bent over [with this] massive build. There’s real power. You said bulldog, and that’s it exactly. Exactly. That’s what I’m going for, and if I have a massive heart attack first, well, you tell everyone what I was going for.”
So there you have it, from Wolverine himself. Hopefully we get more soon, including a confirmed summer shoot for a 2012 summer release.
Keep it near!
Halle Berry last played Storm in X-MEN: THE LAST STAND in 2006.